Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci In Talks For Deal With David Ellison's Skydance

BREAKING: Details are sketchy at the moment, but Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci’s studio-based K/O Paper Products company is in negotiations to join David Ellison’s Skydance Productions. The deal would be uniquely structured, sources say; Skydance declined comment. Kurtzman and Orci are behind some of the bigger tent pole films of the past five years, including Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen as well as the Star Trek reboot and most recently Cowboys & Aliens in addition to TV series Alias and Fringe with JJ Abrams. Kurtzman and Orci are currently working on a Star Trek sequel, which they are producing with Ellison; Kurtzman, Orci and Ellison also are working together on the Tom Clancy adaptation Without Remorse, which Shawn Ryan is penning.

21 Comments

Dreamworks did not pick up their deal after Cowboys & Aliens became an epic bomb. Now start the spin.

Mary Jane • on Oct 25, 2011 1:47 pm

Not entirely true. They have a massive overhead. Massive. Great guys. And everyone knows Cowboys was Favreau. He wouldn’t budge on his decisions.

wooper • on Oct 25, 2011 2:14 pm

I don’t know if it’s true or not, but Dreamworks has bigger problems than these two.

captainLashout • on Oct 25, 2011 1:43 pm

CAA taking down Ellison for big money, love it. They rep both but they don’t care. Now get me my Bentley I’m late for lunch.

Truth teller • on Oct 25, 2011 2:05 pm

Or maybe Dreamworks is a sinking ship…

Tavis • on Oct 25, 2011 4:09 pm

Yeah, right, a sinking ship that just signed Kennedy Marshall who have a more expensive deal that Kurtzman/Orci. K/O delivered a huge loss for Dreamworks in Cowboys & Aliens and they do not have any projects moving forward to production and as a result Dreamworks did not elect to pick up their deal.

It really is that simple.

AliceKnows • on Oct 25, 2011 2:10 pm

It wasn’t just the massive loss from Cowboys & Aliens that sent K/O shopping for a new sugar daddy to lay off their ridiculous overhead on—Dreamworks now facing reality that only other movie which came out of deal was Kurtzman’s Welcome to People that no one sees chance for profit from, apparently the film plays like wannabe Miramax filler from the late 90’s, so sadly not likely to be welcomed at the box office.

oxy • on Oct 26, 2011 12:49 am

Whether WELCOME TO PEOPLE is a massive success or massive failure, I like these guys going indie and favoring characters to complement their massive tentpole success. C & A was awful, yes, but they don’t all work out. You keep pushing forward. I like what I see from them, I like their balance.

John • on Oct 25, 2011 2:53 pm

Mary Jane that is kind of a ridiculous statement. Alex and Bob wrote and produced Cowboys & Aliens. They widely claimed credit for the film and all the key creative decisions until the tracking numbers appeared and a bomb was inevitable.

Who do you blame The Island bombing on? Let me guess Michael Bay wouldn’t budge on his decisions. Their Zorro film that bombed? Martin Cambell wouldn’t budge on his decisions. The two pilots they made last years that did not go to series? Those directors would not budge on their decisions.

When they are not rebooting established brands like Transformers and Star Trek these guys have failed every single time.

jen • on Oct 25, 2011 3:00 pm

Dreamworks just picked up Kennedy/Marshall’s deal last week from Sony and that deal is much more expensive than the Kurtzman-Orci deal. Dreamworks decision not to pick up their deal was not about money. It was about the massive creative and financial failure of Cowboys & Aliens and the fact that they have no projects in development moving forward courtesy of their clueless President Bobby Cohen.

lw • on Oct 26, 2011 12:50 am

What, he didn’t like your script? I hear good things about him.

Harry • on Oct 25, 2011 3:07 pm

The 800lb elephant in the room that no one is mentioning is that Dreamworks has seen Welcome to People, the directorial debut of Alex Kurtzman, and elected after watching it to not pick up their deal. If they thought they had a special film and a major director on their hands they would have never let this deal go.

The Really Real • on Oct 25, 2011 3:30 pm

So many emperors to discuss here with no clothes…

K & O. Not even in the same galaxy as guys like Steve Z (American Gangster) or Sorkin (Social Network). Those are writers. These guys lucked into PREDESTINED HITS based solely on HUGE TITLES. Transformers made money in spite of their lame script with laughable dialogue. They have managed to fool the industry, and more power to them, they made their money. But now with C&A we all got to see what their “writing skills” can do when there’s no big title to hide behind.

Dreamworks. What a stream of hits from the creative geniuses over there. Great greenlight calls on IM#4, Fright Night, Real Steel, and of course C&A. Their financial backers must be livid. How soon til their exec ranks are purged or they go belly-up entirely?

hm • on Oct 25, 2011 10:57 pm

They need to deliver their Indian investors at Reliance a hit.

jsould • on Oct 26, 2011 12:52 am

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Dreamworks needs more AMERICAN BEAUTY, less geek fare.

David • on Oct 25, 2011 4:15 pm

You can’t blame the writers (Fergus, Ostby, Kurtzman, Orci, my grandmother, etc) for the flop of COWBOYS & ALIENS, Favreau owns that one. Ellison must have offered them huge money to leave Dreamworks behind, good thing his father is one of the richest men in the world.

hoorayforhollywood • on Oct 25, 2011 6:11 pm

Bob is incredibly talented and a good guy – no question. Alex, on the other hand, is a seriously slimy douche … and everyone in town knows it. Good luck with this one, Skydance.

Bob • on Oct 26, 2011 6:42 am

Don’t know either of these guys from Adam, but do you have any proof to back up your statements? Who’s “everyone”?

NO RESENTMENT • on Oct 25, 2011 7:31 pm

these guys have obvious talents, as well as deep connections within the hollywood structure and culture. but they work very hard and have figured out a way to conquer the system, big time. good for them!

lucky4u • on Oct 26, 2011 8:30 am

What’s the common thread will all Orci and Kurtzman’s projects? They are bone wearyingly bad. But then again, they learned at the feet of Abrams, so you can’t really blame for not knowing how to write for adults.

blankenweenie • on Oct 26, 2011 9:38 am

This merely symptomatic. The problems with this industry are systematic. The business costs 200% more to run than it did in the late 60’s, when roadshows were bombing regularly, which is exactly what’s happening now. Across the board content is failing, across genres, across budget-scales, across markets. Hollywood needs an entire sweeping revolution, not incremental shifts like Avatar. Orci and Kurtzmann? They’re just wannabees that made the cut and are cruising.

Time to gut the studios. Remember when Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde shocked Begelman, Jack Warner, Yablans etal? Time for a paradigm shift.